THEATER REVIEW: Splendid Candide’ opens Huntington season

Friday

Sep 23, 2011 at 12:01 AMSep 23, 2011 at 11:19 PM

Some big names stalk local stages next week – John Malkovich at the Majestic, Audra McDonald completing her run of “Porgy and Bess” – but the one you may remember most is less recognizable: theater artist Mary Zimmerman. Let her dazzle you with her adept adaptation of “Candide,” as she turns it into a funny, jubilant, stirring way for the Huntington Theatre Company to launch its 30th season.

Alexander Stevens

Some big names stalk local stages next week – John Malkovich at the Majestic, Audra McDonald completing her run of “Porgy and Bess” – but the one you may remember most is less recognizable: theater artist Mary Zimmerman. Let her dazzle you with her adept adaptation of “Candide,” as she turns it into a funny, jubilant, stirring way for the Huntington Theatre Company to launch its 30th season, with a production running through Oct. 16 at the B.U. Theatre in Boston.

The MacArthur Foundation calls adapter-director Zimmerman a “genius,” and you might start to believe the label fits. She cooked up a little epic with plenty of funny quirks – it’s Charles Dickens by way of Monty Python – as we follow the full breadth of Candide’s life, from callow youth to the hard-won wisdom of an adult beaten down by life, but unbowed. It’s a story that, like life itself, begins in laughter and ends in tears.

Oh, she gets a big assist. Nice of the Huntington to honor a local legend. Leonard Bernstein, whose many local ties include Newton, wrote a score so lush that he makes contemporary scores sound flat and cheap in comparison. Richard Wilbur’s work will catch your ear as well; his lyrics are packed with poetry and wit.

The first lyrics out of the mouth of Candide (a heart-warming Geoff Packard) are “Life is happiness.” He believes it, too, and why not? He may be a bastard son, but he’s fallen into the gentle care of a family that’s adopted him as one of its own, allowing him all the privileges of wealth. But when, in the exquisite little first scene, he has the audacity to fall under the spell of the family’s daughter – the lovely, but (hilariously) self-obsessed Cunegonde (Lauren Molina, pitch-perfect in every way) – he’s tossed out on his ass and left to fend for himself. In the globe-trotting musical adventure that follows, his “life is happiness” philosophy will be put to a test that it won’t pass.

At the center of the show are a handful of endearing performances. Erik Lochtefeld has great fun as the fop Maximilian; he’ll charm you almost as much as he charms himself. Professor Pangloss (Larry Yando) will win you over with his unflagging belief that “it’s all for the best,” despite a staggering amount of evidence to the contrary. Cheryl Stern is funny and touching as the Old Lady, sinking her teeth into the fun of the rousing “I Am Easily Assimilated.” And you, like Candide, will want Jesse J. Perez’s Cacambo as your chum.

And then there’s Packard and Molina playing Candide and Cunegonde, the two star-crossed lovers whose intercontinental journey captivates us. Someone needs to give Packard an award – oh, they already did: a Helen Hayes Award for this very role. His Candide grows from boy to man, made wise by a world that beats, batters and bludgeons him before belching him out.

Despite all the talent that spills across the stage, Molina (also a Helen Hayes Award-winner) rises above the rest. To be a great comic actor is one thing; to be blessed with an ability to hit those big, operatic notes is another. But it doesn’t seem fair when the two fit in one lovely, waifish body. She brings the house down in an Act I moment of long, rolling notes that’s both comic and awe-inspiring. Molina astonishes from start to finish.

And that’s a pretty fair description of the show itself, although I wish Zimmerman had trained her expert storytelling skills on trimming about 15 minutes off its almost three-hour running time.

This is essentially the same production that played in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and you may wonder if theaters need to be doing more of this kind of co-producing. It was only by sharing expenses that they were able to stage such an opulent production. Everywhere you look, you’ll see money being spent – a cast of 19, a live orchestra of 14 musicians and an endless stream of knockout costumes by designer Mara Blumenfeld. Honed by countless rehearsals and performances, the show that arrives in Boston is razor-sharp.

And what about a musical based on the work of a philosopher? These days, musicals tend to find their inspiration in less thoughtful material: Like comic books, where gems like “With great power comes great responsibility” pass for philosophy.

But “Candide” started as something a little deeper – a novella by the French Enlightenment writer-philosopher Voltaire. Zimmerman stages the story as a touching ode to humanity. Forget whether there’s a god. Instead, draw inspiration and strength from the indomitable spirit of human beings, the people you draw closest to you, the people who hope and help and fight the good fight in a world that can be shockingly cold and cruel. In the end, you might find something even more important than happiness.

Theater this great doesn’t come around that often. Don’t miss it when it does.